As WA children prepare to return to school, Cancer Council WA is urging supermarkets to prioritise promoting healthy food and drink over unhealthy options, such as sugary beverages, chocolate, and chips, to give families greater access to nutritious choices.
Cancer Council WA Food and Movement Manager, Ainslie Sartori, said a new report* reveals that from the moment customers view the catalogue to plan their shopping, enter the supermarket, navigate the aisles, and pay at the checkout, they are encouraged to purchase unhealthy food and drink products through price promotions in prominent locations.
"Supermarkets are where most Australians purchase their food, and the products these companies choose to promote and discount can have a big impact on what shoppers put in their trolleys," Ms Sartori said.
"Sadly, supermarkets often use price promotions and prominent locations to display unhealthy, highly processed food and drinks, rather than the core healthy items on our shopping list.
"These promotions are usually for confectionary, chocolate bars and soft drinks. When unhealthy food and drinks make up a significant proportion of price promotions and are the most promoted and accessible food and drink whilst shopping, we are more likely to impulse buy more of these items.
"Families across WA are grappling with rising costs of living, and supermarkets should be empowering parents to pack healthier school lunchboxes, not pushing unhealthy food and drink promotions at every opportunity."
Key finding from the report titled, Tales from the supermarket shelves, include:
- 65 per cent of the stores audited had unhealthy food on special at the end of the aisles
- 4 out of 5 of the most frequently priced promoted food and drink products in catalogues were unhealthy
- Sugary drinks were the most price promoted food and drink item
- Unhealthy food and drinks were price promoted almost twice as much as healthy food and drinks.
"We know that families rely on price promotions to make their grocery budgets stretch further, but they are being steered toward purchasing unhealthy products due to the overwhelming focus on junk food promotions," Ms Sartori said.
"To improve diets and create a healthier Australia, we need supermarkets to do more to support healthy eating.
"This includes dedicating a higher proportion of price promotions to healthy food and drink options, restricting the placement of unhealthy products in high-exposure locations, such as checkouts and end-of-aisles, and limiting multi-buy discounts on unhealthy snacks and drinks, to ensure promotions benefit all families.
"We urge our policymakers to act swiftly to address these findings and recommendations and protect the health of all West Aussies."
*About the report, Tales from the supermarket shelves , funded by Healthway
The report includes three projects to investigate the nature of supermarket promotional strategies, the influence they have on WA shoppers, and what can be done to regulate them.
- The University of Notre Dame investigated the shopping habits of West Australians relating to price promotions and product positioning.
- Cancer Council WA conducted an audit of price promotions for food and drink products advertised in the online catalogues of Coles, Woolworths and IGA at three different periods between November 2023-April 2024. These supermarkets were selected as they contribute to the majority share of the grocery retail market in Australia. Aldi was excluded from our analysis as previous studies have indicated they seldom offer temporary price promotions. The first audit was conducted 15 November 2023, the second audit on 24 January 2024, and the third audit was on 17 April 2024.
- The University of Western Australia Law School reviewed the current promotional practices of Australian supermarkets and evidence of their effects on purchasing and consumption of unhealthy food and drinks, with a focus on low income and rural and remote families.
